Keith Richards Says Mick Jagger Needs Vasectomy, Apologizes

Keith Richards said that Mick Jagger was due for a vasectomy, then once the quote went viral walked it back with a public apology. Back in December 2016, the now 74-year-old Jagger became a father for the eighth time when his then-29-year-old girlfriend, ballerina Melanie Hamrick, gave birth to his fourth son, Deveraux. Richards spoke about Jagger becoming a father again at an advanced age during a chat with WSJ Magazine and joked, “Mick’s a randy old bastard. It’s time for the snip — you can’t be a father at that age. Those poor kids!”

Once the quote went viral, Richards set a new precedent by publicly apologizing to Jagger by tweeting: “I deeply regret the comments I made about Mick in the WSJ which were completely out of line. I have of course apologized to him in person.”

Richards isn’t the only person close to the Rolling Stones frontman to raise the possibility of a vasectomy for now-great grandfather. Last June, during a chat with London’s Sunday Mirror, Jagger’s younger brother, musician Chris Jagger, told the paper that Mick would be undergoing the procedure. Chris was asked if Mick plans on having any more children, to which Chris revealed: “No way. I don’t think so. I think he’s going to have to have the snip. . . But whatever you say about my brother, he’s very good with kids. He’s a really good father. All his kids love him. . . Deveraux is very sweet. I’ve got a tiny grandson about the same age.”

During his WSJ chat, Richards touched upon his lifelong relationship with Jagger, explaining, “Mick and I live off of this fire between us. It’s been up and downhill, but if I’m talking about the Rolling Stones, there ain’t a frontman like Jagger. Don’t matter how many bones you want to pick out of him, he’s amazing to work with.”

Richards also gave an update on the next Stones album, saying, “I’m going to sound like Trump — ‘It will happen; don’t worry about it’ — but it’s in the early stages. We have some stuff down, which is very interesting. It’s more difficult for us to write together the further apart we are, but it also has its benefits in that we come back to it from a different angle.”

A while back, Keith Richards revealed that Mick Jagger keeps a keen eye on the Stones’ finances, and that in truth he’s hardly the funky, living-on-the-edge kind of guy he’s portrayed himself to be: [“Yeah, he can fool ya, can’t he? Yeah, he’s a conservative (laughs) in every way except when he works. He’s a very, very conservative guy. Y’know, and when he’s shagging — that’s another thing, I wouldn’t know, y’know, what I mean?”] SOUNDCUE (:13 OC: . . . what I mean)

Mick Jagger was asked how he feels that no matter what he’s done to keep the Stones together over the years, he’s constantly had to face the continual and very public bad mouthing of Keith Richards: [“Well, I think I’m a very forgiving person. And he’s, y’know. . . shoots off his mouth when he’s drunk, basically. So you have to sort of forgive a lot of people that (laughs) shoot off their mouths.”] SOUNDCUE (:10 OC: . . . off their mouths)

The Rolling Stones kicks off their upcoming European tour on May 17th in Dublin, Ireland.